Fingers Crossed(Book 3 of 'Black, Blue, and Green Series')
by ThalicoRULZ
Summary: As newly discovered demigods, Alex, Diana, and Soren think everything is perfect. But no demigod's life is ever perfect, as they are about to discover. Alex and Diana have their biggest fight in ages, and she disappears without a trace before he could apologize. A year later, he gets another chance. Will they ever be able to patch things up, before they never see each other again?
1. Prologue

Prologue

Tears blurred her eyes as she ran on through the woods, ignoring the numerous scratches she recieved from stray branches and trees. It was a cold day, the air heavy with vapor as it hinted at a downpour. The sun was going down, but with the dark strom clouds gathering over the horizon, there was no beautiful sunset, no warming rays of sunlight.

Her mind refused to accept what she had seen only a few minutes ago, which was the reason why she was running.

*Flashback*

_The girl sat on her bunk in her cabin, lost in thought. _'Should I apologize?'_ She thought. Her naturally proud and stubborn nature drove her to keep her mouth shut, and wait for __him__ to apologize first. She didn't want to appear weak._

_But another part, one from her heart, egged her on to swallow her stupid pride, and say sorry first, be the bigger person. She angonized over the descision for a long time, head in her hands._

_Taking a deep breath, she stood up, and walked out, before she had a chance to change her mind. She was _not_ going to sulk in her cabin like a selfish bitch._

_But when she opened the door to the boy's cabin, she saw a confusing sight._

_The boy was talking and responding enthuasically to another girl. Which would have been upsetting enough for her, seeing him act as if their argument hadn't even fazed him. But no, that was not what made her feel so angry, and sad, all at once. It was because of _who_ the other girl was._

_Her._

'No, it can't be her,'_ She tried to think, but a second look confirmed she was right._

_Just as she was about to leave, and forget about the whole thing and never speak to him again, the boy noticed her, turning around from his place on the floor._

_He tried to say something, probably a useless explanation. But it was too late. The damage was already done, and badly._

_She, shaking with barely controlled fury, managed to spit out words which made the boy recoil in shock, and ran._

*End Flashback*

She could hardly stop the tears that ran down her cheeks as she sat down in the shadow of Zeus' Fist. The sky darkened even more, matching her moods, and rain started.

Her salty tears mixed with the cold rain, falling into the grass. As the wind picked up, turning from a gentle breeze to a howling gale, the girl wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as the rain pelted her.

Closing her eyes, she wished to be anywhere, anywhere but here. Away from him.

Even going into danger seemed preferrable. At least she would be able to vent her chaotic feelings out. She felt a strange tugging sensation, and everything went black.

* * *

When she was able to see clearly again, she was in an unfamiliar place, definately not the woods at Camp Half-Blood. When and how she got here, she had no idea, but she didn't care.

Studying her surroundings, she noticed that she was in a forest glade with a roaring campfire in the middle, surrounded by silver tents.

Then she saw about two dozen girls looking at her in shock and confusion, all wearing idential silver camoflauge.

She looked around warily, expecting them to chase her out, or swarm her.

But she suddenly felt a wave of fatigue overcome her, drowning out the world once again, in a blanket of tranqility.

Just before she sank into unconsiousness, she heard a voice call out,

"Thalia?"

* * *

**Ta da!**

**The long awaited third book! I'm sorry it took so long, but I had to to middle school math, a.k.a. quadratic equation, and sheesh, it's super hard!**

**I had to do all of my... what's it called in America? An academy? Institute? You know, somewhere you are supposed to study, have teachers, pay tuition, but it's not a school. Anyway, they sure give a ****_lot_**** of homework, especially math. English is easy peasy squeezy here in Korea, you know, so that's not a problem, but math is.**

**Why do I have 2pages of English, 4pages of Science(We don't separte science subjects until high school, I'm not sure how it is in America), 2 damn and a half pages of BOTH Social Studies(That's how it shows up in the dictionary, but really, it's geography, a tiny dash of weatherology, humanity, and a scoop of History mixed, and served in a book) AND HISTORY. I hate History, it's my worst subject, after Art. And I had a freaking 22-page math homework!**

**Well, I do like making stuff, artistic activities, building, but I seriously suck at the test. Who cares about who the representative artist of abstract paintings, surrealism, and what ever else is, when you don't want to major in Art? Although, Impressionism was cool. Luckily, we have a weird system in middle school where they jam one subject into one year, so I finished with Art in middle school first grade, a.k.a seventh grade to you other non-Korean readers. And they jammed History into the second grade, which I am/was, so I'm free of History in my third and last grade in middle school. I'm a FREAKING THIRD/NINTH GRADER in March! **

**Yeah, our school starts in March, and ends in February. Plus, we only have two semesters, which are both five months long, and summer/winter vacation are both barely 5 weeks. Jeez, our school system is so strict.**

**Back to the orginal subject, and so that's the reason this took so long.**

**If you give me the little things called 'seven reviews', I'll update as soon as I can, which may be tomorrow, the next day, or you get the idea. If I don't, then you'll have to wait another week, since Sundays are the only days I'm allowed to use the family computer.**

**Your reviews would really help me out, as I love reading them. Plus, I have an excuse to use the computer-"The readers love it!"-to write stories.**

**Oh, and can you read my other stories? I personally think 'A Drachma for your Thoughts', and 'Thanks, for Everything' are my best stories yet, but they got so little reviews. **

**P.S. Can anybody tell me how the beta-system works?**

**A very tired and stressed out writer,**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	2. Chapter 1

*Alex's POV*

Hi, I'm Alex Jackson, son of Percy and Annabeth Chase-Jackson. My best friend, Diana di Angelo, is the daughter of Nico and Thalia di Angelo, which makes us second-generation demigods. Second-generations used to be rare, but ever since my mom succeeded in her 'pet project', New Athens, we aren't that much rare.

What's New Athens? Oh, a slight replica of New Rome that Roman demigods have, so we could go to school, college, get a job, and whatever, protected by the demigods in camp, and the magical borders that surround us, first conjured into being by my best friend's mom, Thalia, when she got turned into a pine tree at the age of 12. Your average demigodness here.

I have a sister who's three years younger than me, Amy, and Diana has a twin brother, Soren, and Seth, who's six years younger, therefore too young to come to camp.

Amy is a blond girl with the grey eyes typical of Athena campers, and has a slightly serious air around her, but she still knows how to have fun and all. She and I both reside in the Poseidon cabin, since it's a whole lot less crowded then the Athena cabin.

Soren is Diana's twin, as mentioned before, but the only thing they have in common is their jet black hair, and pale skin. Soren has light, almost pale olive skin, and has midnight blue eyes which are so dark they seem black as a starless night.

Seth is Diana's little brother, and he's the proof that appearances can be deceiving. With black hair like his older siblings, olive skin, and sparkling blue eyes which range as a graduation from midnight blue in the center to electric blue on the outer, he seems like the perfect blue-eyed Italian angel. But no, he's got a mischeivous streak a mile wide, and is almost as creative as the Hermes campers. Plus, he seems to love Mythomagic with a passion, and challenges anyone. Luckily for Soren-he and Seth have kind of a love/hate relationship equal to the relationship between the Hermes campers and the rest of the camp-Seth was judged too young by his parents to come to camp, so he's probably sulking down in New Athens by now.

Oh, I think I saw lightning strike the place where Diana's parents live. It's either Seth, or Thalia.

Okay, enough of the introductions. Let's get back on track.

* * *

"Ah, the world of mythological creatures and deities!" I said, hands up in the air, walking with Diana to the arena.

"Stop being so dramatic. You look and sound really weird like that," Diana commented, and I gave a pout face before grinning. It was really nice to see Diana back to normal, free from her depression a few days ago. I still felt upset everytime I looked at the vertical scar on her right side of the face, since I could have prevented it. If I had been faster...

I was going to have my first swordfighting lesson in Camp Half-Blood, and Diana was to have archery, of course.

"Hey, Rex, we're at the arena. Snap out of la-la land," Diana said, efficiently making me 'Snap out of la-la land'. Rex was her nickname for me, because when we were young, she once pronounced my name as 'Rex' by accident, and it stuck.

"Okay, fine, yeah, whatever." I said slightly distractedly, as I saw one of the teachers call us over.

"Hi, I'm Will, and I'll be your archery teacher. This is Clarisse, who will take over swordfighting." Will said, motioning to a teacher who seemed to have a permanent scowl on her face.

"Yes!" Diana cheered, and Will scrutinizing her. "What's your name?" He asked, almost looking as if he knew the answer. "I'm-" "I'm Alex Jackson, and this is Diana di Angelo," I cut in, smirking as Diana glared at me. It was kind of a competition for us, to see who could speak first. The winner was always different, each time.

"Well, Alex, if you're anything like your father, no archery for you!" Will joked, and Diana laughed as I huffed. "Yeah, he's totally hopeless. Last time-" "Let's not get into that again!" I interrupted quickly before she could say any embarrassing stories. Sometimes, it was hard having a best friend who loves teasing you.

I took out Tsunami, and Diana summoned her bow and quiver. "See ya later, alligator!" Diana called out as she walked over to the archery range.

"Alright, punk. Let's see how much you can do first," Clarisse said, before suddenly striking. I was so startled I almost didn't block it. Key word: Almost.

I twisted the blade, and the spear glanced off in a shower of sparks, stunning both Clarisse and me. I didn't expect to actually block it.

She went in for another blow, and my ADHD senses kicked in, so I was hyper-aware of everything at once. Where Clarisse shifted, tensed, and moved.

I dodged, rolled, and slashed almost instinctively, as I gave thanks to Dad. I never had such a hard-pressed fight before, since both Diana and I were inexperienced, Soren preferred using powers, and Dad never gave me his entire concentration.

We were interrupted just as she disarmed me effectively, sending Tsunami clattering to the floor.

"Wow, are you sure you're just a newbie?" A young boy asked, his green eyes sparkling. An older girl scolded him, pinching his cheek. "Benjamin! How many times have I told you to introduce yourself first?"

"About several hundred times," I heard him mutter, before he said "I'm Ben Stoll, and this is my older sis, Natasha."

"You can call me Tasha," Tasha told me, before she rounded on her little brother. "Don't call me sis!"

I laughed as I walked over to the cooler, taking out a bottle of ice cold water, and drank half of it before pouring the rest over my head.

It splashed around me, and revitalized me, making me feel much better. I decided to practice on my own for a bit, _without _Clarisse beating the shit out of me.

* * *

**So sorry for the long break! I wrote it, and it all blanked out, so I had to write it all over again.**

**Anyway, I hope you loved this story, and please please review, readers! **

**I love reviews, they're so exciting to read!**

**Have a good day!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	3. Chapter 2

*Diana's POV*

"Alright, I'll show you how to hold a bow properly, although I'm sure you already know. Standard procedures," Will said, holding his own bow. I studied it carefully, and frowned. It was different from how I did it.

Shrugging, I decided to go with it, and copied his hand posture. It was uncomfortable, and I couldn't get the feel of it very well. When I aimed at a target, it hit the mark, but not the bulls-eye I was used to. In fact, it was clear that the aim was poor, and there were no strength behind it.

"That's strange," Will said, as I bit my lip. I wasn't used to missing the mark, so this feeling was new. I decided to try again, this time using my own way. As soon as the balance point of my hand shifted, I instantly felt more comfortable, and could sense every inch of the shaft, and knew where it would go even before it did.

Will stood there, and smiled wryly. "There's nothing more to it. It's different from swordfighting because there's not much variation, no special techniques. Just accuracy is the point here, no pun intended. So there's nothing to teach you about archery, and I suggest you practice with a short-range weapon during this class." He said, and I whistled.

"Oh, and I look forward to archery contests next time," he said, before leaving me to train.

* * *

"Wow! Did you see me? He said there was _nothing_ to teach! I have free time!" I whooped gleefully, as Alex and I went out of the arena, both on our own cloud nine. I admit, his swordfighting skills were pretty good.

After we had finished, we had switched places, and I got a good laugh as Will explained exasperatedly for the eighteenth time that he was supposed to aim for the mark, not random objects lying around. He once shot straight at me, and apologized endlessly while I nursed my bruised shoulder, because he used blunt arrows, thankfully.

At swordfighting, the practice swords were too big and awkward for my hands, so I used my spear. I wasn't horrible or anything, but I still needed to polish my speed and agility. And I had reliable Hunter instincts-thanks Mom-so it wasn't too hard like I expected.

"Yeah, you were pretty good," Alex agreed, slinging an arm around my shoulders. I suddenly felt light-headed as I looked at him in the eyes.

They were a clear sea-green, with the slightest tinge of blue at the center, and the green darkened to emerald around the edges. I saw the tell-tale flecks of gold of a demigod, and...

Realized I was staring. "Thanks, you were, too." I said quickly, trying to hide the lapse of quiet. I was confused; I had seen them a million times and over, why was I studying them now?

_'Hey, Di. What's going on?'_

I whipped my head around to glare at Soren, who was watching me with an almost unintelligible hint of amusement in his eyes.

'_Mind your own business,'_ I snapped, and he smirked, before returning his attention to somewhere else, namely, the lava wall. It was a bit funny to see Soren panicking at the top of the climbing wall because he couldn't jump down. Sure, he can jump _up_, but not down. He crouched there, holding on for dear life as he peered over the edge. No one was noticing, thankfully, because if they did, Soren would have sent them to Grandfather's home the hard way.

"Race you to the pavilion! It's almost lunch, anyway!" Alex challenged, not noticing my telepathic exchange with my poor, terrified bro.

_'Oh, shut up'_

"You're so going to lose!" I said, and we took off.

_'Dear brother, how about flying down?'_

_'You _know_ I can't control when I fly or not. That's your department.'_

_'Yeah, you're right. It _is_ my department. Not yours. Good luck on getting down!'_

_'I hate you.'_

_'Back atcha'_

* * *

"I win."

"Yeah, I noticed, Di. Thanks for reminding me," Alex said sarcastically as he scraped a bit of his food into the flames for the gods. I grinned cheekily; annoying Alex was fun, because his reaction was hilarious.

"You're welcome." I smirked, as he rolled his eyes and sighed.

I sat at the Hades table. Technically, I should be at the Zeus one, because I was closer to that side, but-shh, don't tell-the Hades table was closer to the Poseidon one, giving me ample time to annoy the Hades out of Alex, and hopefully avoid Emily's teasing words-she sits at the Zeus table with Andy-about me and Alex.

'_How did you get off the climbing wall?'_ I asked, as I saw Soren already at the table.

'_I still hate you. And I shadowtraveled.'_ Soren said, his attention already in his food. Boys.

I had to suppress a shudder as I looked at his plate. There were several olives with something I didn't recognize on them, and an eggplant...something.

'_It's actually green olives marinated with sesame seeds, lemon juice and mint, and Eggplant Parmesan, thank you very much.' _Soren said, and I stuck out my tongue. How can anybody live without protein?

'_Again, beans have protein. How many times to I have to tell you? Beans have protein. Oh right, about a thousand million times or so.'_ Soren said sarcastically. We basically had this conversation everytime we ate together, to the point the lines were memorized. The only part that gets edited is the part where Soren tells me what he's eating.

But seriously, no barbecue? You know what, scratch vegetarian. He's a definite vegan.

I ate slowly through my gods-blessed non-vegan food, savoring the rich flavor.

I then felt eyes on me, so I looked up curiously. Directly in front of me were the Zeus, Demeter, and Hecate table. But no one was looking at me. That is, until Emily lifted her head to meet my confused eyes, scanned the tables, and suddenly motioned discreetly to the right of me. The Poseidon table.

I saw Amy eating her food, Alex staring at me, a couple of Hermes campers arguing-wait. Alex staring at me?

When I met his eyes, he jumped slightly, and quickly studied his food as if there was diamonds in there.

_'Interesting. Very interesting.'_ Soren commented, not taking his eyes off from his food.

_'Stai zitto!'*_

And.. Oh yeah, I forgot about annoying Alex during the small mental banter.

* * *

**Stai zitto* is Shut Up! in Italian. **

**Me and my friends are a little obsessed with Italian related words, so Diana and Soren will occasionally make a remark in Italian, mostly swear words, though.**

**I'm right here with another chapter waiting! **

**But really, I'm disappointed. Only four reveiws? Come on, you guys can do better. **

**And news!**

**I posted a new story, and the title is _'Code Name: MURDER'_ I'm still deciding if it's gonna be a T or an M, read and tell me later on, because the first chapter is just a filler. The juicy parts are still coming later, the next chapter. But it's a Mystery/Horror/Crime/Tragedy with Percabeth, so choose wisely on whether you read or not. Oh, and there's a Luke/Thalia/Nico/O.C tangle, and Piper, Jason, Leo, and maybe Travis and Connor, will make an appearance, hopefully with Katie.**

**{Replies to the reviews}**

**Elmlea-Yeah, you're right. Alex's useless at archery, but he's a master-in-budding in swordfighting, and dagger? The same.**

**Wendy Grace-I'm still waaaaiitiing for another chapter of 'Sister Love'!**

**Thanks anyway to Elmlea and Wendy Grace for all the four reviews!**

**Plz R&R!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	4. Chapter 3

*Alex's POV*

Heterochromia iridium, a condition commonly known as odd-eye. Diana had it, resulting in her unique electric blue and dark brown combination. They had fascinated me when I was seven, and still did, even now. It's almost cliche on how she got each eye color from her parents.

And-

I had absolutely no idea why I was thinking about this when I was having a win-or-die game on the lava climbing wall. After narrowly escaping various burns, I managed to get down the same way as always: jumping into the sea.

"Alex!"

I recognized the voice as Amy, and I slightly reluctantly got out of the ocean, and walked up to meet her and her friend. Her 'friend' looked vaguely familiar, but I was pretty sure I had never seen her before. "This is Alice Zhang. Alice, Alex." My sister introduced, and I recalled my parents talking about somebody called Hazel and Frank Zhang. Oh yeah, I remembered her from just pictures.

"It's so cool! She can shapeshift, and can, like, summon precious gems!" Amy exclaimed, really excited, and Alice blushed red, though it was barely noticable through her coffee bean brown skin.

"Shapeshift, yes, I can do that. Summon gems... well, only in small quanities. I'm just glad I don't have to suffer from the same curse my mom had to go through," Alice admitted, discreetly elbowing her, and Amy yelped. I had to smile, Amy was still Amy, whatever her age was.

Alice suddenly snapped her fingers, and the ground right in front of my shoes cracked open, pushing out a small aquamarine, and closing by itself. "Here," Alice said, scooping it up and giving it to me. I studied it, noting that it had straight cut edges, unlike raw chunks of gem. "It's probably from a piece of jewlery. Maybe the metal or wood part fell off," I guessed, turning it around. "You can keep it, I already have more than enough gemstones in my life," Alice said, and I nodded, slipping it into my pocket. Maybe I would use it sometime later..

"Rex!"

Seriously, what was it with these people calling me? But I turned around anyway, because I knew it was Diana. I don't let anybody but her call me that, even Amy. Besides, Amy has other nicknames to call me, not that I would respond.

"Gotta go!" I said, heading to the voice. Behind me, I thought I heard Alice say to Amy, "Do you think they're dating?" But it should have been my imagination, because why would anyone assume that? We're just best friends. Besides, Diana would find it awkward, we'd been friends for so long.

But my face still felt warm by the time I reached her. Diana looked at me, hands on hips. "What's with the red face?" She questioned, and I shrugged. "Dunno, maybe the sun?" I suggested, and luckily for me, Diana returned her attention to the earlier reason she'd called me.

"Wanna race to the stables, Rex?" Diana said, smirking. Groaning, I slapped my forehead, and said real dramatically, " And you will win, Di, like always!"

"You're right, Rex"

"What?"

* * *

"By the way, who was that girl? Should we know her?" Diana asked, and I smirked. I could tell she was making an effort to sound nonchalant, but it wasn't really working well.

"Jealous, are we?" I singsonged, and Diana immediately punched me. But I had developed immunity to her punches, so I didn't even move a bit.

"_Faccio idioto,_" Diana mumbled, and I had enough experience with the Italian di Angelo family to roughly know that translated to 'jerkface'.

"And to answer your question, no. I'm not jealous," Diana said, promtly kicking my shin. "Owww, what crawled up your butt and died?" I whined, and she said "Sorry," not sounding really sorry.

"And to asnwer your question, yes. She's Alice Zhang," I mimicked, and Diana rolled her eyes. "_Dei, mi aiutano occupo di questo fastidioso figlio di Percy Jackson.*"_ She sighed.

"Hey!"

* * *

**Dei, mi aiutano occupo di questo fastidioso figlio di Percy Jackson.* means Gods, help me deal with this annoying son of Percy Jackson. I used Google translate, so please bear with me if the grammar sucks.**

**So sorry for not updating! I had a load of H.W that I will not bore you with telling this.**

**Please R&R this and read 'Code Name: MURDER' I recommend it for Percabeth, Thaluke, Thalico, and post Annaluke fans! Plus, it's a mystery/crime/slight horror story!**

**Love people who review!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	5. Chapter 4

*Diana's POV*

After the rest of the afternoon activities, and after dinner, we went to the campfire. The Hecate cabin were telling a spooky-I can't decide if it's supposed to be a horror story, because it's not really that scary, just a bit creepy-story, and I was toasting marshmallows.

Cabins usually sit next to their cabin mates, but since the Big Three didn't have demigod kids, and the usual posts were filled by us second-generation demigods, we were technically _not_ demigods. So to make a long story short, I sat with Alex, Soren, Alyssa-she's one of my new friends, and Jade-her boyfriend.

Alex was toasting a marshmallow, making it a lovely golden brown that made my mouth water with the memory of the sugary taste. Out of sudden mischief, I stabbed a finger in the marshmallow's direction, and a small bolt of lightning leaped from my fingertip to the white fluffiness, effectively frying it to ashes.

"Come on, Di!" Alex protested, shaking the ashes off his stick. It was really cute seeing him so flustered. Maybe I should make this a campfire habit. Poor marshmallows.

I continued burning his, and stopped when I noticed he was stealing mine precious marshmallows.

"Attention, campers. Next week, there will be a Capture-the-Flag game, so ready yourselves and your teammates!" Chiron announced, and we all cheered, though I had no idea what the game was about, but the title basically told it all-capture the flag, don't let others get it.

"What's that?" Soren muttered, and someone who introduced him as Aiden Valdez, turned around, and explained. "It's basically a game where you try to steal each other's flag, and try not to get killed." See? I was right.

Alex nodded. "What are the current teams?"

"Blue Team currently has the flag, and the cabins are: Zeus, Hades, Athena, and the Hermes cabin. Red Team is Ares, Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Apollo. The minor god's cabin members, they choose which team they want, so same cabin mates don't necessarily end up in the same team. Saves us a lot of planning," A boy next to Aiden said. Both Alex and I nodded, Soren not really caring. After all, what I know, he knows.

_'Got that right.'_ Soren said, and I rolled my eyes.

"By the way, I'm Simon, Aiden's older brother, and this-" He said, and I noticed Emily. Wait, Emily and Andrew were demigods? "-is my girlfriend, Emily Grace. I guess she's Diana's cousin."

"I already know. Hi, Emily, nice to see you here," I said, Alex saying "She already knows," at the same time I did.

Emily smiled-I really envied how she could look pretty without effort-and said "Mom and Dad told me not to tell you until you found out for yourselves, so, sorry for that,"

"Nah, it's 'kay," I said, biting into my marshmallow.

* * *

_Diana started walking towards the woods, her eyes dazed. Soon, she was running, tears falling from her eyes._

_Behind her, the sky darkened with storm clouds, pelting freezing rain and strong winds accompanied by thunder and lightning._

* * *

_'Get up-Ow!'_

I woke up to see Soren on the ground, wincing. From what I could gather from his thoughts and general position, I was pretty embarrassed to find I had shocked him in my sleep.

'_Sorry,'_

_'I'm never going to attempt to wake you up again. Next time, Alex can be the one who gets electrocuted'_

_'That's not nice'_

_'Since **when** was I nice?'_

_'A long time ago'_

I walked out of my cabin to see campers putting on their armor. I grabbed mine, inherited from Mom, and fumbled with the straps for a bit before someone helped me adjust them.

I whirled around to see Alex, who grinned in that really adorable way of his, and walked over to his teammates planning for the game. Oh, right. Alex was the Poseidon camper, and Amy would be in the Athena side.

Blue team gathered, and I ducked inside the circle.

"Okay, here's our plan. We're going to put the flag up in a tree. Diana, you're our best archer, so you'll be up in a tree right beside it, and shoot the campers down. Alice, Amy, we're posting you by the creek. We need to neutralize Alex. And half the Hermes, lead by Tasha, will scatter through the woods, and the rest of Hermes and Athena campers will split into two groups and approach from either side. Soren and Andrew, guard the flag from the ground. The minor god campers can then be free to take the flag. Got it?" A kid from the Athena cabin, I think her name was Rowan, said. I was slightly surprised she knew us, the newcomers, so well, but she was an Athenian. Of course she knew.

* * *

The horn sounded through the trees, and I shifted to a more comfortable position in the tree, struggling to find a place both comfortable and giving me a clear shot.

I sat there for a long time, feeling bored as the sounds of battle came faintly from everywhere in the forest. I saw a slight movement under the bushes nearby Soren, and we both noticed at the same time.

'_You, or me?'_

_'I'll take care of it'_

I slowly notched an arrow, and let it fly.

I heard a yelp as an Apollo camper tumbled out. Andrew immediately engaged him in combat, but it was no contest. Apollo campers are good at long-range, not short-range combats.

Andrew disarmed him, and dragged him away to be taken prisoner.

As soon as Andrew was out of sight, two campers charged in, one wet, other completely dry. The camper yelled, causing a wave of water crashing through the trees, barely missing my foot from where I was. Soren was disoriented, and also distracted by the other camper-Aiden-fighting him, leaving the flag unguarded. Or so the camper thought.

I recognized him as Alex, smacking myself mentally for not noticing earlier. I fired an arrow, but Alex deflected it, looking around for the culprit.

My arrows wouldn't be of much use in short-range situations. It disappeared, and reappeared as a charm on my bracelet.

I concentrated, and the spear tip charm glowed, and I was soon holding a spear.

Taking a deep breath, I dropped down from the tree.

* * *

**Don't have time for long author's note**

**R&R!**

**Thanks for your reviews!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	6. AN To DaughterofHades

Hey, this isn't a chapter, although I will bemoaning one tomorrow. This is a letter to DaughterofHades, because she isn't logged in, so I am posting one here. So, what I'm trying to tell her is that I will make a story for her. And there will be Thalico, too, I hope she doesn't mind. I tried to find her account, but I couldn't. DaughterofHades, if you have an account, can you please send me a PM? Because I want to contact her in someway that doesn't involve me having to post a n AN everything I want to tell her something. ONCE, or please make an account and tell me, because I have many things to ask. Thanks for being such a supportive reader! (Elmlea and Wendy Grace, if you are reading this, too, then just know that I love your reviews, too.) R&R! ~~Thalico_RULZ 


	7. Chapter 5

*Alex's POV*

You could have just jumped down from a tree like a normal person. But no, Diana has to make a dramatic entrance just for the hell of it.

I mean, seriously, a spear crackling with lightning, with a really evil grin?

The Apollo camper, who by the way was Jade, was just a distraction to get Andrew away. And then Aiden was to occupy Soren while I got the flag. I of course forgot to take Diana in consideration. I'd just assumed she'd be on the offense, which suited her personality. Swift, blunt, and all out. Soren was the exact opposite, preferring stealth, precise, and contained. And the Blue Team's attempt to neutralize me by Alice and Amy? Pretty much failed.

Alice may have stronger geokinesis than me, but I still had hydrokinesis, and they were by the creek. My territory. Amy was fierce, but as I said before, the creek's on my side, not hers. My control over water was superior to Amy's. Guess the planmaker didn't take that into consideration.

"!?" I said, as Diana dropped down from the tree. I never knew you could say exclamation marks without words, but somehow I managed it. Diana smirked, one corner of her mouth lifted.

She raised her spear, and charged. I met it with Tsunami, and the air crackled and smelled salty with a tinge of ozone.

We slashed, jumped, and rolled, trying to disarm each other. I was concentrating so hard I didn't notice it, but the water from the earlier attack was healing all the small cuts I got from thorns, branches, and Diana's spear.

Diana suddenly shouted, and thunder broke open the sky, and a blast of lightning, stronger than normal, struck me, and I was thrown backwards.**(A/N: Wendy Grace, Alex got electrocuted! But not in the way you expected.)**

"Alex!" Diana called out, startled, and I slowly sat up, wincing.

I waited until she got closer-hey, we're still in a battle-and lashed out, balls of lightning crackling around us as we engaged in battle again.

As we fought, I couldn't help but feel a little impressed by her powers, which had grown considerably during the short time in camp.

I struck, dodged, and counterattacked. But Diana slammed my sword away with her spear.

She came at me with a swipe to the head. I parried, returned with a thrust. Diana sidestepped easily. I attacked, and sliced off the grass directly in front of her, but that didn't even faze her. She dropped to a crouch, and jabbed at my legs. I jumped, and hacked downward, but she rolled aside.

Standing up, she was backing up when I attacked with such force, she fell, bringing me down with her.

The position we ended up in wasn't at all modest.

In fact, we both blushed a dark red.

I was on top, arms on both sides of her, and I don't want to describe further. Can you blame me?

I got up, and so did Diana, both looking away from each other. I turned around to face her, sword at ready, and Diana attacked before I could blink.

We sparred for several more minutes, when everything went wrong all at once.

Diana and I had been fighting in the clearing, and our fight had moved us away from the tree, to where there were shadows casted from the woods. Diana backed up, taking one step back, and just when she was completely in the shade, she suddenly froze.

I halted, confused, when her eyes widened with anger, and... fear?

"Leave me alone!" She shrieked, squeezing her eyes shut, and pressing her palms to her ears, spear discarded. What?

"Di.." I started, trying to calm her down. I took a step forward, and Diana shrank back from me, eyes still tightly closed, hands still desperately trying to block whatever she was hearing.

"Go away!" She cried out, and started to scream, crumpling to a ball on the forest floor. "Wh-" I tried again, but I was suddenly flung backwards into a nearby tree, and I was facing a really pissed off Soren.

"_What._ Did. You. Do." He snarled, the temperature dropping by twenty.

"I.. I don't know.. We were battling... Backed up into a shad-" I was interrupted once again by the screams.

Soren's face suddenly went blank for an instant before he paled even more than usual. "No.. not the dreams again.."

He swiftly went to Diana, who was still curled up, tears running down her cheeks as she screamed. Soren called her name, shook her, but she didn't respond. The he took a deep breath. "I'm really, really sorry about this," he said, and slapped her. _Hard._

Diana's eyes shot open, and her eyes were filled with pure fear, before turning confused, then shame washed over her face. The cries petered out, but silent tears still coursed down her face as she took deep, shuddering breaths. I knelt down beside her, as I slowly started to understand what was going on.

_The dreams._ Soren had said. The dreams in high school, right before we came here. The dreams I never knew what it was, what Diana had never told me. Of course.

The dreams that had made my best friend attempt suicide.

Morpheus, I could just kill you know. And Melinoe? You're next.

* * *

We, meaning Soren and I, helped Diana to the Hades cabin, which she preferred over the Zeus cabin. I don't blame her, the Zeus cabin had a huge weird statue that was intimidating.

Soren turned to look at me. "You can leave now, I can take care of her better than you." He said quietly. The comment stung a bit-I was her best friend for more than eight years!-but it made sense. What Diana needed now was mental support, and Soren could do it better than me. He's her twin brother with the pyschic link, after all.

"But-" I still said, cursing my ADHD that refuses to let me back down, as well as my fatal flaw, personal loyalty. Thanks again, Dad.

"You can trust me." He said, fixing me in place with his cold midnight blue eyes, like a winter night. Cold, ever since the day at middle school.

"Alright. Tell me when she's recovered," I said, reluctantly walking out of the cabin, and making one of the top five mistakes in my life.

* * *

**How's that for a depressing chapter?**

**And in case you didn't understand why Diana broke down, read the prequel, _Black, Blue, and Green. _**

**It shows you Diana's dream, which was:**

**_*Flashback*_**

**_She was running. Running in darkness, heading for the small point of light that she somehow knew would save her._**

**_Behind, she could hear the slow, soft footsteps. Slow, but they were always close behind, no more than two feet away. The darkness was cold and unwelcoming, the air damp and the air smelled of mildew. Her skin broke out in goosebumps as another icy wind swirled around her._**

**_Her feet splashed though puddles, although she didn't know what liquid they were, but the scent alone told her enough. The metallic, salty scent reeked from everywhere around her._**

**_She didn't know why, but she knew she had to get out of this place, or be trapped forever in darkness. She risked a glance backwards, like every time she had this dream. She knew it was a dream, but it was too real._**

**_And every time she looked back, she always saw nothing but a sillouette of a human, and its eyes were glowing red._**

**_"You're useless. Worthless. You don't deserve to live, much less the one of a demigod." _**

**_Diana fought down rising terror, still running for the speck of light in the distance, which somehow seemed much, much further away than before._**

**_But the cold, cruel voice of her classmates and something more darker, was relentless.(A/N: It's not Kronos or Gaea. They were already defeated. Just Melinoe, goddess of nightmares)_**

**_"Your life is full of misery, loneliness. Everything is pointless, and you die."_**

**_She couldn't even scream, as the air was slowly getting scarser and scarser for her to sustain any movement except for the running. She could hear the mocking voices of her classmates, too._**

**"You're a freak. A weird, psychopath. You shouldn't be human. Maybe a monster? I bet you were adopted because your real parents thought you were a freak of nature," _They chanted, and the sound filled her mind with despair and misery. She couldn't stand this anymore; night after night of dreams of_ _mockery._**

**_As her legs ached, she thought she could hear someone calling from the speck of light. "Don't give up!"_**

**_It was familiar, but she couldn't place the name of the person._**

**_Just before she reached the now bigger spot of light, her legs gave up, and she fell on the floor, tasting blood in her mouth. The floor was rough and hard, scratching her everywhere._**

**_She tried to get up, but the shadow had already caught up with her, red eyes pinning her down._**

**_Diana sobbed; so close, but she was unable to get away, into the patch of light._**

**_The dark voices filled her ears again, bringing waves of misery and pain. As the coldness seeped into her skin, entering her bones, her last thought was in agreement with the horrible voice._**

**_'What's the point of stuggling? You're dead anyway. You'll never escape this dream.'_**

**_*Flashback end*_**

**The whole stepping-back-into-the-shadows gave her an unexpected flashback of the dream, which only made it worse.**

**Hope you liked it, even without the usual humor and all.**

**Oh, and I have BBG oneshots to share with you. Here's the titles, or the general subject, of each of them. The underlined show the available ones.**

* * *

***_How Soren met Leila [LOCKED, not available until the fourth book comes out]_**

**_*Alex's POV on when he first met Diana, as in the epilogue in 'Thalia goes to Goode High'_**

**_*Diana's POV on what had happened (which she never got to tell Will), caused by Alex's terrible archery skills_**

**_*Alex's POV of what had happened in BBG 2, when he had thought of the first time Diana got depression in middle school, plus one of the top five mistakes._**

**_*Diana's POV of a fluff with Soren and his 'friend' in middle school. Slight references to when Soren teased Diana in the hospital, saying Alex and she were an item._**

**_*Alex/Diana/Soren's POV alternating, showing what made Soren so anti-social, unwelcoming, and cold. Also explains why Soren has gothic tendencies._**

**_*Soren's POV , reflecting that situtation four years later[LOCKED]_**

**Please tell me which oneshot you want to see, and I will post it up!**

**R&R!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	8. Chapter 6

*Diana's POV*

Months had passed from my last 'blackout', and I was feeling normal and stable like usual.

I woke up from my strange dream, one I didn't remember, in my cabin. Or, you could say I remembered, only that I remembered bits and pieces.

* * *

*Flashback*

_I stood in a pink room that reeked of designer perfume. At first, I thought I had somehow walked inside the Aphrodite cabin, but no amount of begging would get me to go there in the first place._

_"Hello, dear." A melodious voice said, and I found myself face to face with a beautiful woman, growing in beauty the longer I looked at her._

_"Lady Aphrodite?" I started uncertainly. "What brings you here-or me to here?" I corrected myself. When a goddess, especially the love goddess, takes an interest in you, it's never good._

_"Remember that Capture-the-Flag game? You guys looked sooo cute together. I mean, Dialex is just perfect!" The goddess squealed, and I winced. My eardrums were close to exploding._

_"Don't worry, dear. I won't make it too boring for you. Anguish. Indescision. Oh, you just wait!" Aphrodite said, which sounded pretty worrying anyway._

_"What? Dialex?" I said, not really getting it._

_"Ah, denial. The first signs of love. I wish you luck, young demigod."_

_And the dream faded_

_*Flashback End*_

* * *

Oh, alright, alright. I remembered everything. There, happy?

And for some reason, I was really feeling out of it today. And today was supposed to be my birthday. December 12. The12 day of the 12 month. The month Christmas was in, when the legend of Santa Claus started. And the supposed Santa Claus' sleigh was based on Artemis' moon chariot.

Artemis, the Greek form of Diana, which also happens to be my name. Can someone kill me with cliche now? I guess I'm lucky it's not 24th or 25th. Otherwise, I'd be drowning in sheer clicheness of it all. I thought these stuff were only supposed to happen in stories.

Then again, Greek Mythology was supposed to be just that. A myth.

As soon as I stepped out of my cabin, I was bombarded with a over-cheerful "Happy Birthday!", as did Soren.

Since we were twins, we had the same birthday. A Captin Obvious comment if I ever saw one.

"Hey, Di. Here's your present. And yours, too, Soren." Alex said, handing us two boxes. "Thanks!" I said brightly, trying to suppress the entire feeling-out-of-it thing.

I got a cresent moon shapted charm, an aquamarine set into the silver. The aquamarine was strangely the exact same color as Alex's eyes. Oh, maybe a coincidence.

_'Yeah, right. A coincidence,'_ Soren said, clearly not believing me. I chose to ignore him, busying myself with attaching the charm to my charm bracelet.

"Cheers," Soren said, examining his skull ring. It was way cool, different from his silver one, because it was made with onyx and sapphire.

For him, "cheers" was his idea of an enthusiastic thanks. After all, Soren was _not_ a birthday person.

* * *

I was resting after a particularly intense archery lesson, and was nodding off when someone nudged me.

"What?" I demanded irratably. "C'mon, you'll catch hypothermia if you sleep out here," Alex said, hauling me up. Being December, it was cold, although there was no snow. And it wasn't even cold as it should be, since the camp's magic kept it out. Alex was just exaggerating, as usual.

"Fine, fine," I said, walking to the cabins.

Just then, a girl bounced up. I didn't recognize her, and nor did Alex, but it seemed like she was a daughter of Iris, or an overly colorful Aphrodite child. "Oh em gees! You're Alexander Jackson, aren't you?" She said. Alex winced slightly, he didn't like being called his full name, because of an unfortunate time when I, as a elementary kid, teased him relentlessly about the entire 'Alexander the Great' thing. Whoops, sorry, Rex.

"Uh.. yeah.." He said awkwardly. "Wow! Your parents are the legendary Hero and Heroine of Olympus! And your Dad saved the world!" A few other girls squealed, quickly surrounding him.

For some reason, I felt really irritated. And the girls' squealing didn't actually help my gods forsaken headache. And when I say I'm irritated, I mean majorly. My parents saved the world, too! And Dad played a really big part in helping Percy fulfill the prophecy. If Dad had never taken Percy to the River Styx, Percy would've never been able to survive the war. And if Dad had never known of Camp Jupiter, if he had never taken Hazel to that camp, there wouldn't have been seven demigods. Plus, my _Dad_ was the one who risked his life to find the Doors of Death, and told Bob Percy was his friend.

Did I need to get started on Mom? She sacrificed her life for Annabeth, also making sure the second Great prophecy was complete. Her life helped create the magical boundaries which protected the camp even now. She- you know what, I'm going to stop ranting.

"See you later," I muttered to Alex, slipping away from the crowd. I was pretty sure he didn't hear me over all the ruckus.

I sighed, and headed to my cabin.

"Di? Are you asleep?"

I heard Alex outside the door a few minutes, or hours as it seemed to me, later. I was developing a very serious headache which made it hard to concentrate.

"Come in," I groaned, burying my face in my pillow.

"You don't have to sound so grumpy, anyway." Alex commented.

I flipped over, and glared at him. The headache was not helping my mood in any way, and I currently had no patience for Alex's humor. "Had fun with your little fan group?" I taunted.

"It's not my fault they were on me!" Alex defended himself. "Sure, like you couldn't tell them to back off!" I yelled. It was really hard to get my mind clear.

"Why are you so angry? Are you jealous? Give me a break! I'm tired of you being suspicious everytime I talk to a girl! What is it with you? We're not even dating!" Alex shouted.

That hit a sore spot. I just didn't want Alex making friends with a girl who will only want to be friends because of his famous parents. I wanted Alex to have friends with someone who would actually care.

"Hell, no. Why would I be jealous of a stupid boy who doesn't even know what I'm talking about?" I said. What am I _saying?_

"Being a stupid boy beats being a whiny, irresponsible, bossy, controlling _girl_ any day!" Alex yelled, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't affected. I had never seen Alex so angry before, even when he'd seen me cutting. Then, he had been worried and concerned for me, as he had explained. Now, it was just anger, one I wasn't used to dealing with from him, and I'm ashamed to say I acted accordingly.

"Shut your damn mouth!" I screamed, and my hand flashed out, slapping him. A red mark appeared on his cheek, and for an instant, I felt shocked.

His eyes went wide as well, before narrowing. "I thought you weren't so low as to stoop to that. Slapping because you didn't get what you wanted. Well, newsflash, di Angelo. You can't have everything in the world your way." He snarled.

It stung because I knew it was true.

"Get out." I whispered. "I never knew you were like this," I croaked out. His words had pierced me to the core, and it hurt. A _lot._

"Well, you thought wrong," Alex said.

"Get _out_! _GET OUT!"_ I shrieked, throwing a picture frame.

He went out before it could hit him, and it crashed against the wall, glass flying everywhere, shattering into a hundred pieces.

* * *

When Soren came in, I was sitting next to the wreckage. Dry tear marks on my face, trying to put the pieces together of the picture of me and Alex.

* * *

**Yeah, this is the big fight.**

**Sorry if it's lame, I just went with the flow, and this is how it came out.**

**Tell the the oneshot you want! I will post it up!**

**And don't forget to read and review!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**

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**Did you really think I would let you go that easily? Here's the oneshot Elmlea and Wendy Grace wanted!**

**_*Alex/Diana/Soren's POV alternating, showing what made Soren so anti-social, unwelcoming, and cold. Also explains why Soren has gothic tendencies._**

**Okay, here we go! (Warning: Dark and depressing themes)**

Alex and Diana were in the park on a slightly cloudy day. Diana was rollerblading, while Alex was skateboarding. Or so she wanted.

Actually, Alex was trying to teach Diana the basics of skateboarding.

"No, Di, you do _not_ put your foot there," Alex sighed, and Diana rolled her eyes.

"Is there anything you're not good at? Straight As, snowboarding, skiing, ice skating, rollerblading, skateboarding..." She complained, and Alex smirked.

"You forgot water skiing, canoeing, and surfing," He listed, and Diana snorted in annoyance.

"Just so you know, I'm not that good at baseball, and I suck at football," Alex said, trying to appease his pale friend.

Diana opened her mouth, a smart remark ready, but suddenly, her eyes widened, and all the blood drained out of her face.

"No, no, no, _no_." She whispered, before turning to Alex.

"Soren and Cody, they... they.." Diana couldn't seem to finish her sentence. Alex nodded curtly. "Let's go. Lead the way,"

The duo took off, feeling relieved the skateboards were just rented, not theirs'. They weaved their way in and out of groups of people, and Diana led the way down the street. She rounded the corner into a deserted alleyway, where Alex could see traces of blood on the ground, heading the way they were going, and Alex was almost too afraid to keep going. He was only a middle school student, after all.

Their legs were aching, but luckily, one of their strong points were stamina.

Diana suddenly stopped, and Alex was distracted, so he banged into her, and sent both of them crashing to the ground.

Dazed, Alex sat up, blinking the stars out of his eyes, when he was jerked to full consiousness by Diana's horrified scream.

"Diana!" Alex shouted instinctively, but she wasn't in danger.

"Soren..." She said, still in shock from what she saw.

Alex had never heard Diana sound so anguished before. He followed her gaze, preparing for the worst, and saw the worst.

The alley had opened into a small clearing, and there was blood _everywhere_. Where was Soren? Could... Alex pushed away the thought, and scanned frantically,

He spotted Soren in a corner, his clothes making him harder to see. But something was terribly wrong. Where had all the blood come from?

"_Cody..._" Soren whispered, and Alex followed his gaze to a motionless body. Keeping the bile from rising in his throat, he went over to it, while Diana went over to Soren.

Diana touched his face, and tilted it up to meet her eyes, but Soren kept his midnight blue eyes, nearly black with grief, trained on Cody. She was shocked to se his leps were split, and his skin had a chalky pallor, showing the bruises more clearly.

"_What happened?'_ Diana asked, knowing the answer as soon as she asked it, and regretted asking.

Wordlessly, Soren let Diana help him up, and she could see he had a black eye and numerous bruises.

"Let's get you to the hospital," Alex said, suddenly back. Diana tried to look behind him, but his hand stopped her.

"Don't. Sometimes, it's better not to know." He said in a choked voice. Diana looked at him, considering whether to ignore him or not, but reluctantly turned away just in time to see police officers and the 911 come in, alerted by the scream earlier.

"_Now_ they show up," Alex hissed angrily as they all piled in the ambulance waiting for them out the alley.

After seemingly endless hours of interrogation, and the hospital fussing over Soren who kept silent during the entire ordeal, not even flinching when the doctors set his dislocated arm, they were able to get back to Alex's home. Thalia was on a business trip to France, and Nico had went to Italy to visit family and relatives, apparently.(**A/N: *cough*demigod duties*cough*)**

"Oh, god," Anabeth cried out, as she rushed over to the kids, silently thanking the fact she got weekends off. "Percy, get the nec-medicine," She called out, remembering the kids didn't know the Greek mythology world, and Alex's dad arrived soon later, holding a cup of what looked like apple juice.

"Annabeth! Soren's going into shock!" Diana cried out, and Percy quickened his steps, nearly shoving the glass into Annabeth's face, who gave it to Soren.

He drained the glass, and set it down, color already returning to his cheeks. But his face remained expressionless, and his eyes looked dull and dead, deprieved of their usual sparkle.

* * *

Soren had never felt such apathy before. He felt numb, like he was in liquid time and space. Every movement weighted hinm down, and he felt hollow inside, as if something had disappeared, ceased to exist. Soren almost wished he had never met Cody, but his very being shied from that thought. He hated his emotions, he despised himself for being so different from others. Then Soren instantly felt ashamed for not accepting himself for the way he was; his sister, his family, Alex's family, they all accepted him.

And Soren had been happy. Cody, too, had liked him the same way. He'd never expected Cody to have shared feelings, and he had been so happy.

Now, happy seemed like a foriegn concept to him, even though he could recall laughing on their date, just a few hours ago.

Thinking about it made other memories surge forward. Their first date, passing notes in class, their slightly awkward first kiss. But it only served to intensify the aching pain in his heart.

'_Soren, Cody's funeral is today. But you don't need-'_ Diana started, but stopped when she felt strong waves of an emotion she couldn't figure out.

Even to the funeral, Soren remianed slient, staying completely still despite his ADHD.

Annabeth and Percy decided to give Soren personal space to grieve quietly, retreating to the entrance.

A few minutes later, a tremor passed through the ground, and the air was suddenly thick with static and vapor.

Percy and Annabeth, regretting their descision, exchanged anxious glances, and hurried over to where the preteens were.

Cody's parents were yelling at the trio, although the brunt of it was focused on Soren. The Jackson parents arrived just in time to hear the last part.

"-because of a fag like you!"

Diana had never been on good terms with adults, but whgat she did probably took the cake. Her mismatched eyes blazed dangerously, and Alex gritted his teeth. Ironically enough, Soren remained silent, his face empty of feeling, his eyes dark blue voidsd.

"Y-" Diana started, but was interrupted by Alex's parents cutting in.

"Then, I believe, you just called your own son a fag, too," Percy said, and Alex at the same time restrained Diana from attacking the adults, verbally and probably physically, too. Alex had never been so glad that Amy and Seth had a school trip today.

Soren looked up, and even Cody's parents recoiled from the dead look in his eyes. Diana then suddenly broke free, then walked over to Soren, hands resting lightly on his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," She said, her eyes tearing up, looking at her brother who stared at her with pained eyes.

* * *

Soren sat on his bed, looking at the wall where pictures of Cody and him were hanging. Cody's mom's words came back to him. _"Cody wouldn't have died, if you had never been born! Cody died because of a fag like you!"_

It hit a little too close to home for comfort. A fag. As much as hurt, it was still what he was, whatever people decided to call him. Fag, gay, hetrosexual, non-straight, or different, it was all the same.

Then Soren suddenly felt angry. It wasn't _his_ fault he loved someone out of the box. Why can't they just let it go? His emotions pinwheeled out of control, making it hard to think clearly, but one thought was clear among the haze of barely contained fury.

_They want different? They **got** different._

For the next few weeks, Soren became completely different. His normally calm demeanor disappeared, and his optimism was changed to recklessness to the point of dementia. Fights broke out in nearly every class he was in, and he went overboard on his already innate gothic side.

Going as far as to paint scenes of death and torture, the scenes that had never left his mind, seared into his brain. Cody had died from torture, and he was going to show the world his pain. He relished both his classmates' and teachers' expressions on looking at his macabre scenes. Not a single page on his notebook or textbook was without at least a skull, incredibly realistic.

Another 'different' thing to add to his list. Aside from being a vegetarian, wearing black, being Goth, gay, weird midnight blue eyes, and having the most distinct Italian accent of his sibling, he also had to be good at drawing.

Soren was thinking of adding 'nihilist' to his list, when Dylan, the new kid, decided to prove himself to his classmates by picking on him.

Soren was finishing a particularily gruesome picture, when Dylan snatched it away, and ripped it up. The entire class went quiet, expecting a reaction.

But for some reason, Soren didn't do a thing, absorbed in his drawing.

The next day, there was a new life-like picture of Dylan dead, hanged in the graveyard, pinned to the blackboard with a magnet in the shape of a bloody knife.

Finally, Alex decided to team up with Diana, and put a stop to Soren's destructiveness and depression, because they both knew it was slowly killing him. That was also the day they started high school.

But several things never changed.

Soren kept his dark clothes, skulls and eyeliner, all in remembrance of Cody, his late boyfriend.

* * *

**The oneshot is longer than the story. How can it be?**

**You know, the oneshots were supposed to be in chronological order. Now you'll have to wait to find out what Soren was like _before_ this!**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


	9. Chapter 7

*Alex's POV*

I was storming back to my cabin when I ran into Soren, who looked both confused and upset. "What happened? I can't get through to her," he asked.

"Then _ask_ your damn sister why," I hissed, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. But I was too angry to consider the consequences and the feelings of the person I was talking to.

"Fine. I will." He said, and I walked past him, the lake churning and the sea in a turmoil, reflecting my mood.

When I opened the door to my cabin, Amy, who had been chatting with a group of friends, jumped. Her friends took one look, and they scurried away.

"What's wrong?" She asked me.

"Just leave me alone!" I snapped, finally pushed over the edge. Amy shrank back, eyes wide with fear.

I put on my headphones, and turned on the volume up so loud it hurt my ears. 'Over My Head (Better of Dead)' by Sum 41 blasted out, which was oddly suitable for my situation.

_'Now I'm in over my head, for something I said, completely misread, I'm better off dead.'_

I listened for a while, eyes shut tightly, then finally took off my headphones. Because one of Diana's favorite songs, 'My Happy Ending' by Avril Lavigne was coming out, and it gave me too much to think about.

I forgot to turn the MP3 off, and as a result, the lyrics still rang faintly from the phones.

'_Was it something I did?_

_Was it something I said?_

_Don't leave me hanging_

_In a city so dead_

_Held up so high_

_On a breakable thread'_

I yelled in frustration, and ripped out the headphones, causing the MP3 to automatically pause.

I shut my eyes, turning off the MP3.

* * *

For several days, Diana and I avoided each other. It was painstakingly obvious to others we had a fight.

Some came to me, and teased about 'love spats', not really getting my mood, but it stopped after a broken arm, a black eye, several bleeding cuts, a dozen bruises, and a wave that very nearly flooded the camp.

But the worst was when people tried to comfort me.

"Alex-" Emily tried, but I cut her off. "Really, Emily, just drop it," I sighed, too tired to make a big fuss.

I spent most of my time in the arena, slashing, fighting, venting my frustration out on the dummies and other campers. It didn't really help them that I had skills nearly matching my Dad.

When the camper I was fighting with, Evan from the Ares Cabin-they were now the only ones who still wanted to fight with me-was sent to the infirmatry after a particularly violent bout, Chiron suggested I take a swim in the lake. I think it was a nice way of saying 'Get your fucking emotions under control before you kill someone.'

I sat at the dock in my cabin overlooking the sea, my feet in the water, my confused, pent up, and mostly angry emotions from then started to fade, at least to the level I could think clearly. It made me realize just how harsh I had been to Diana. She was stressed, and not in a good condition. It wasn't her fault. I needed to apologize.

I got up, and headed to the Hades cabin, hoping she was there. I had to act quickly before it was too late to repair things.

But naturally, someone had to sidetrack me.

"Alex!" Squealed a girl, and out of nowhere, a girl flew out of the Eris cabin. I groaned inwardly when I saw who it was.

Tori, the daughter of Eris. Also known as the master of conflicts, champion gossip, and first place in breaking people up. Not who I wanted to talk to. Besides, she was famous for being a flirt.

"Hi, but I-" I started to say, but she stepped forward, making me take a step back. This continued until I was back in the Poseidon cabin, which goes to show 1, I hadn't gone so far from the cabin, and 2, I was an idiot.

"Sorry, but I really need-" "Is this your cabin? Cool!" She said, and sat in a chair, causal positioning another so it blocked a sudden escape.

"Uh, yeah," I said, letting out a forced laugh. I didn't want to anger her, her mom was the goddess of strife, and the last thing I needed was more conflict.

She chattered on and on, and I inserted appropriate responses distractedly, all the while wishing there was a way out of here. Behind her, the sun was going down.

"And did you hear? Jade actually-" I never got to hear what Jade did, because she stopped.

Startled, I snapped out of the half-trance I had been, bored to death, and whirled around to see Diana, her face filled with hurt and confusion.

With a jolt, I realized how this must look like to her.

My back had been to the door, so she had no way of knowing I hadn't been paying attention to Tori.

"Di-" I started, but she cut me off.

"You know what, Jackson? You're a fucking backstabbing bastard. I _hate_ you." She spat, and ran, to the woods.

"Oops, looks like I messed something up," Tori chirped.

"You knew this would happen? You ruined _everything!"_ I yelled, pushing past her, and heading for the opened door.

I then saw Soren suddenly stop in his tracks while returning from the arena. His face changed from confusion, shock, then pure fury.

_Di immortales_. Soren was going to kill me. And I had a feeling it would be in the literal sense.

* * *

**Yep, the plot thickens. Thanks for all the reivews! I love Wendy Grace and Elmlea, and others who reviewed. Wendy Grace and Elmlea are mentioned because they reveiwed, and helped me from the start.**

**Elmlea, I'm waiting for a chapter of 'Snow White'!**

**Wendy,(Can I call you that? Or Skyla?), please update 'Sister Love'!**

**and DaughterofHades, if you are reading this, then know I'm currently writing out the plotline.**

**I'll let you know when I finish.**

**Tell me which oneshot you want to read!**

**Read, and review, my readers!**

**April Fool's Day!(It's April 1st here in Korea)**

**~~Thalico_RULZ**


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